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Salad

Chicken Salad

A salad of cooked chicken, celery, egg yolks, mustard, oil, vinegar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dressing

  1. In a separate bowl, rub the egg yolks smooth.

  2. Add the mustard, salt, oil, and vinegar to the egg yolks and mix well.

Combine and serve

  1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken and celery.

  2. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery mixture.

  3. Add a little cream and mix gently.

  4. Serve immediately after adding the dressing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Meat + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together855 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Emulsify with the oil and vinegar to form a smooth, creamy dressing that coats the chicken.
Oil
Adds fat that blends with the yolks to give the dressing a rich, smooth texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
White meat of cooked chicken
Provides the main body and mild flavor of the salad.
Celery
Adds crisp texture and a fresh, slightly savory crunch.

The step that matters

Rub the egg yolks smooth before adding the other dressing ingredients. Lumps of yolk will not blend evenly into the oil and vinegar. Mashing the yolks fully first lets them emulsify into a smooth, creamy dressing rather than leaving streaks or clumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, chicken, egg, mustard, vinegar, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, egg, mustard, vinegar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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